Water Supply Authorities Research Articles

State of drinking water and its management aspects in Dhaka city

The population of Dhaka city is now assumed to be around 20 million. The city dwellers are facing acute shortage of water. Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) and Directorate of Public Health and Engineering (DPHE) are distributing water in Dhaka city. The present water demand is 2,474 MLD but the production is 2087.5. The DWASA is supplying water through 661 deep tube wells to the inhabitants of the city and more than 2000 private tube wells are abstracting water from different depths. This paper focuses on the demand and supply gap, collection pattern of water, its supply chain and wastages by different groups of people, finding alternative options to meet the crisis management etc. The DWASA needs to collect surface and rainwater and distribute after treatment. We recommend reducing the dependency on groundwater to maintain satisfactory underground level of water. The authority should replace the old supply chain by a new one, installing more number of new pumps with high capacity and establishing more number of overhead tanks. Industry and tannery should be relocated outsight the city to avoid water contamination and ensuring the availability of quality water. The Government should encourage the entrepreneurs by providing SME loan to establish more number of bottle/jar drinking water factories outskirts of Dhaka city and near the river bank under the close monitoring of Bangladesh Standard Testing Institute (BSTI), DWASA and DPHE to provide safe drinking water.

Assessment of microbial quality of water in popular restaurants in Sylhet city of Bangladesh

Microbial contaminations of drinking water constitute a major burden on human health. Interventions to improve the quality of drinking-water provide significant benefits to health. An assessment of microbial quality of water in the samples obtained from different popular restaurants of Sylhet City Corporation, Bangladesh were analyzed in the laboratory. Our aims were to find out the microbial properties of water, to analyze the potable water qualities of the restaurants and also to compare it with different standards to assess the health risk of people. The microbial tests viz. MPN, TVC and total coliform test were studied. Results revealed that all the water samples were fecal contaminated and had a great chance of contamination by other pathogenic bacteria. Results indicated that most of the samples were significantly positive to MPN test and TVC bacteria were highly significant. The risk score for coliform bacteria also remarked high risk for human health according to WHO standards and were not suitable as potable water. Our recommendations are therefore, water supply authority including restaurant owners should take necessary steps for the maintenance of microbial quality of water and microbial assessments should be done very often to leading a hygienic water distribution environment of the city.Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 41(1): 115-125, March 2016

Optimal location and scheduling of booster chlorination stations for drinking water distribution system

The optimum location of booster chlorination stations is worked out along with the scheduling of booster chlorination stations for the steady-state flow conditions for drinking water distribution system (DWDS). Linear programming in Excel is utilized for the formulation of the model by coupling the simulation results of EPANET software for residual chlorine at critical nodes and optimal location of booster chlorination stations, using different combinations of booster stations. The combination of booster stations gives a minimum applied dose of chlorine at the same time satisfying the constraint of residual chlorine of 0.2 mg/l (IS 10500-2012) at all the locations within the DWDS. The optimal location of booster chlorination stations, in combination with optimal scheduling of booster stations using optimization method, can serve as an important decision-making tool for any water supply authority for the selection of appropriate location, number of booster stations, application of optimum chlorine mass rate and overall cost reduction.

A systemic framework and analysis of urban water energy

Energy impacts of urban water systems are substantial, but not typically analysed systemically. We develop a new system boundary framework including a utility, the ‘bulk water supply authority’ (SB1); the ‘urban water system’ including water use (SB2); and the ‘regional water system’ (SB3). We use the framework to review existing models and show that most address only one boundary. We apply the framework to quantify thermal equivalents of water-related energy in SB1 and SB2, and identify that over 96% of water-related energy in South East Queensland (SEQ) is outside SB1 and within SB2. Consideration of energy influenced by water use is paramount to systemic energy efficiency and optimisation in the urban water system. Clear articulation of system boundaries will improve modelling and management of the energy impact of urban water. Systemic modelling will help decision makers answer increasingly integrated and cross-system and sector questions regarding water and energy interactions.

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Present study was conducted to find out the status of the hydration in football players of Kisangani Urban football teams. A personal interview based on well structured questionnaire was conducted to collect data related to water intake by player during, before and after the match. Furthermore, weight of the players was also recorded before and after the training to assess status of hydration. Result of the study revealed that over 58 % of players loose more than 2% of body weight and it is higher than the standards set by FIFA. Furthermore, it was reported that majority of footballer consumed water whenever they feel thirsty it can be before, during and after the match. Most of the player used water from the Water Supply Authority (REGIDESO). Excessive body weight loss was observed during the match and training season and it decreased physical performance of the players.

Evaluation of the quality of service of the water supply delivery in Lebanon

The global community had launched a global target related to access to sustainable safe drinking water sources and had pursued a global monitoring and reporting program on progress made on access to drinking water sources. The universal indicator considered by the global community for this purpose is the proportion of the population with (or without) access to improved drinking water sources. An improved drinking water source is defined as one that is likely to be protected from outside contamination. However, monitoring and reporting progress using this indicator does not reflect the quality of service delivery, in particular the quantity, quality and continuity of drinking water supply. This paper presents the evaluation of the quality of service of the water supply in Lebanon based on additional national-specific indicators that can properly inform the quality of water supply service delivery. A method of evaluation of quality of service index (QSI) is proposed based on a fuzzy inference system. The results of evaluation of the QSI for the four regional water supply authorities in Lebanon for the years 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2014 are then presented and discussed. Finally, the conclusion and further developments are presented.

Investigation of severe water problem in urban areas of a developing country: the case of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The present study evaluated water supply geochemistry in Dhaka City, Bangladesh, to provide detailed trace level (subppb) water quality data that include major ions, low dissolved oxygen (DO) and toxic trace metals for sustainable development. Dhaka Groundwater, which almost uniformly meets the World Health Organization guideline, has become the preferred source. Due to groundwater depletion and an ever-increasing need to meet water demands by city residents, Dhaka water supply and sewerage authority has initiated the treatment of river water, despite the fact that very little is known about the geochemical structure, and trace metal content in the Dhaka water supply. Major ion composition of water samples was determined, and the results used to generate Stiff diagrams. The diagrams served to visually compare water from different sources based on units of mass/volume. Hydrochemical facies analysis showed supply ground and surface waters are comprised predominately of Ca-Na-Mg-HCO3 and Ca-Na-Mg-HCO3-Cl types. Spatial distribution of ions, and Na/Cl and Na/SiO2 molar ratio indicated that silicate weathering is the dominant geochemical process. Chemical data revealed that toxic Cr metal mobilization is associated with chemical hazards from the leather industry. The vulnerability of deep wells to contamination by As is governed by the geometry of induced groundwater flow paths and the geochemical conditions encountered between the shallow and deep regions of the aquifer. Quantifying total arsenic (As) and As from interlocking geochemical cycles (Fe, Mn) may assist in interpreting As dynamics in Dhaka well water. The surface source water was hypoxic to anoxic low DO associated with very high concentrations of biological oxygen demands, and electrical conductivity compared to industrial and non-industrial urban processes and standard activity guidelines. The results of this study should be applied to future research focused on the potential to improve water quality in urban and surrounding areas.

Learning about and Taking Action for the Environment: Child and Teacher Experiences in a Preschool Water Education Program

Water education and conservation programs have grown exponentially in Australian primary and secondary schools and, although early childhood services have been slower to respond to the challenges of sustainability, they are catching up fast. One early program targeted at preschools was the Water Aware Centre Program in northern New South Wales developed by the local water supply authority. This paper reports on a qualitative study of children's and teachers' experiences of the program in three preschools. The study's aim was to identify program attributes and pedagogies that supported learning and action taking for water conservation, and to investigate if and how the program influenced children's and teachers' practices. Data were collected through an interview with the program designer, conversations with child participants of the program, and a qualitative survey with early childhood staff. A three-step thematic analysis was conducted on the children's and teachers' data. Findings revealed that the program expanded children and teachers' ideas about water conservation and increased their water conservation practices. The children were found to influence the water conservation practices of the adults around them, thus changing practices at school and at home.

Learning about and Taking Action for the Environment: Child and Teacher Experiences in a Preschool Water Education Program

Water education and conservation programs have grown exponentially in Australian primary and secondary schools and, although early childhood services have been slower to respond to the challenges of sustainability, they are catching up fast. One early program targeted at preschools was the Water Aware Centre Program in northern New South Wales developed by the local water supply authority. This paper reports on a qualitative study of children’s and teachers’ experiences of the program in three preschools. The study’s aim was to identify program attributes and pedagogies that supported learning and action taking for water conservation, and to investigate if and how the program influenced children’s and teachers’practices. Data were collected through an interview with the program designer, conversations with child participants of the program, and a qualitative survey with early childhood staff. A three-step thematic analysis was conducted on the children’s and teachers’ data. Findings revealed that the program expanded children and teachers’ ideas about water conservation and increased their water conservation practices. The children were found to influence the water conservation practices of the adults around them, thus changing practices at school and at home.

The production of space in the negotiation of water and electricity supply in a bosti of Dhaka

Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) and Dhaka Electricity Supply Company (DESCO) do not provide any direct utility supply in the informal settlements of Dhaka where more than one third of the total city population live. Large numbers of the population thus access utilities from local vendors who maintain relationships with administrative staff of the authorities concerned, political leaders and influential community leaders, thus making the supply available in the settlement and continuing their informal utility business. Access to these utilities is negotiated in the continuously changing arrangements of a complex hybrid institutional sphere and under informal regulation. In this process, the changing nature of the state and urban groups and the complicated and dynamic relationship between and within urban groups indicate that urban governance operates in a ‘third space’ of constant negotiation and contestation. Against this background this paper presents the informal practice of water and electricity supply by a local association, the regulations in place, and the inter-linkage between different forms of regulatory space whose presence is a necessary condition for the continuation of the informal practice.

Development of sustainable operational technologies of the water treatment plant for stable water supply

For the continuous and stable supply of safe drinking water, it is essential to not only design suitable water treatment plants that can handle the characteristics of raw water quality but also appropriately operate and control them. Controlling complicated water treatment systems using fewer operators essentially requires hazard identification and the establishment of the operation and control of the systems by a simple method of selecting the relevant data. Therefore, the Hanshin Water Supply Authority has supported operators by adding an advanced operation supporting feature to the renewed information-processing equipment in water treatment plants. Moreover, the Authority has investigated the problem of bromate, examined measures for its reduction, and applied the control measures to the information-processing equipment so that operators can promptly cope with the problem. This supporting system is effective in terms of the Water Safety Plan. The successive development of technologies while considering the aspects of operation and control is important for realizing a continuous stable water supply.

Detecting marine intrusion into rivers using EO-1 ALI satellite imagery: Modaomen Waterway, Pearl River Estuary, China

Because of increasing marine intrusion into the Pearl River Estuary (PRE) in China, salinity has become one of the important and necessary hydrological and water quality monitoring parameters. In this research, we examined the relationships between the reflectance from Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) Advanced Land Imager (ALI) satellite imagery and total suspended solids (TSS) based on the synchronous in situ spectra analysis of the river water, in an attempt to detect salinity using remote sensing technique. The study site was the Modaomen Waterway in the PRE, Guangdong Province, China. We found a strong negative linear relationship between in situ reflectance at 549 nm and TSS concentrations (R 2 = 0.91, p < 0.001) when the salinity of the river was less than 1.46‰. It indicates that the TSS near Pinggang and Nanzhen in Modaomen Waterway of PRE tends to be dominated by organic mater carried by the particles and this is one major reason for the inverse relation between reflectance and TSS. Meanwhile, a strong correlation was observed between salinity and TSS (R 2 = 0.70, p < 0.001). The salinity-TSS model accounted for 70% of variation in salinity and allowed the estimation of salinity with a root mean square error (RMSE) of less than 0.036‰ when the TSS concentrations were between 7.4 and 28 mg l−1. Therefore, we were able to develop a new method of detecting surface salinity of the river estuary from the calibrated EO-1 ALI reflectance data. The EO-1 ALI derived surface salinity and TSS concentrations were validated using in situ data that were collected on 18 December 2005, synchronous with EO-1 ALI satellite imagery acquisition. The results showed that the semi-empirical relationships are capable of deducing the TSS concentrations and then salinity from EO-1 ALI imagery in the PRE under low salinity. The methodology of detecting salinity from ALI imagery provides potential to monitor coastal saltwater intrusion and provides the water supply and conservancy authorities with useful spatial information to spatially understand and manage the marine intrusion.

Water Supply of Phnom Penh: An Example of Good Governance

During the 1980s, after years of centralized management and a culture of inefficiency and corruption, the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) was dysfunctional. Unaccounted for water routinely surpassed 70%. During the 15-year timeframe between 1993 and 2008, it experienced a metamorphosis; with enlightened management and dedicated and competent staff, the Authority has been completely turned around. Its annual water production increased by 437%, the distribution network by 557%, pressure of the system by 1260%, and its customer base by 662%. Unaccounted for water was reduced from 72% to 6.19%. Its profit increased consistently as has the amount of taxes paid to the Cambodian Government. This paper is a summary of an independent evaluation that examines how this remarkable transformation has been achieved.

An analytic hierarchy process for assessing externalities in water leakage management

One of the main challenges that water supply managers face is that of minimizing the water lost through leakage from the systems that they operate. To minimize water losses, substantial amounts of money must be invested every year in leak detection and repairs. This investment is usually balanced by the benefits derived from the use of the recovered water. Nevertheless, this scheme of economic assessment does not reflect the whole dimension of the profit-earning capacity of repairing leaks; and the associated benefits go beyond just the economic value of the recovered water. In this paper, we consider a new economic assessment approach that includes all the costs incurred by the existence of leaks and the benefits derived from their control. The main difficulty derives from the fact that comparisons with regard to certain properties will only work for properties with well-defined scales of measurement. The analytic hierarchy process of Saaty (2008) [1] provides a useful way to establish relative scales that are derived by making pairwise comparisons using numerical judgments from an absolute scale of numbers. The unique largest eigenvalue and the Perron eigenvector of the matrix of criteria provide, taking into account the properties that this matrix exhibits, the necessary information for dealing with complex decisions that involve dependence and feedback. These decisions are analyzed in the context of benefits, opportunities, costs, and risks. We also present a method for improving the consistency of the comparisons — as consistency may be affected by subjectivity. The main conclusion is that water supply managers and authorities should shift direction from purely economic policies based on passive leakage control towards new social and environmental policies that consider more proactive actions.

Evaluating water resource management in the face of a carbon market

This article discusses tremendous opportunities for water supply and wastewater treatment authorities to contribute to long‐term CO2 emissions reductions through better water resource management. With these opportunities also comes an enormous responsibility to find a balance among energy efficiency, water resource management, and CO2 emission reductions. This balance is unique to each municipal water provider and depends on numerous factors. This article examines three components of the water energy link: subregional energy generation; water resource availability; and, distribution system upgrades and conservation programs. By using examples from three municipal water supply authorities (Chicago, Illinois; Arvada, Colorado; and James City County, Virginia) with markedly different geographical and water resource situations, variations in need and the potential for water conservation and CO2 emission reduction is demonstrated.

Ek Sonn Chan and the Transformation of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority

Case study on the Transformation of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) and the strategic role of its Director, Ek Sonn Chan, in its reform.

Bringing Safe Water to Phnom Penh's City

The Earth Summit in Johannesburg in 2002 reaffirmed the commitment to cut by half the number of people in the world with inadequate access to clean water and sanitation by the year 2015. Privatization or private provision have been advocated for urban water supplies. However, water utilities in many developing countries, including Asia, still operate within an inefficient and monopolistic environment with ineffective regulators. Cambodia’s Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority is unlike typical Asian water utilities. The previously decrepit and war-torn water supply system has been changed radically, from one with incompetent management which lost both water and customers, into a model public water utility with a 24-hour drinking water service, subsidies to the poor through connection fees and tariffs, non-revenue water reduced to 6.15%, and successful collection of bills increased to over 99%. This article describes the way in which the reforms have been achieved.

Use the Right Source at the Right Time

The Southwest Florida Water Management District was prompted to focus on creative water management practices when years of drought conditions caused a severe water shortage in southwest Florida. The Southern Water Use Caution Area was created to manage the state's water resources in eight counties of the SWFWMD, reduce the region's dependency on groundwater, and halt saltwater intrusion along the coast. Created in 1982 by interlocal agreement, the Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority consists of four member governments: Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee, and Sarasota counties. Working with its members and SWFWMD, the authority turned to conjunctive use–harmoniously combining surface water and groundwater supplies–to maximize use of existing infrastructure and sources to meet projected short‐term supply deficits.

Effective planning and management as critical factors in urban water supply and management in Umuahia and Aba, Abia State, Nigeria

Plan and policy development usually define the course, goal, execution, success or failure of any public utilities initiative. Urban water supply is not an exception. Planning and management in public water supply systems often determine the quality of service the water supply authorities can render. This paper, therefore, addresses the issue of effective planning and management as critical determinants of urban water supply and management with respect to two Nigerian cities Umuahia and Aba both in Abia State. Appropriate sampling methods systematic sampling and cluster techniques were employed in order to collect data for the study. The collected data were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The findings of the study indicate that planning and management indices such as funding, manpower, water storage tank capacity greatly influence the volume of water supplied in the study areas. Funding was identified as a major determinant of the efficiency of the water supply system. Therefore, the study advocates the need for sector reforms that would usher in private participants in the water sector both for improved funding and enhanced productivity.

Deterioration of granular activated carbon collected from post-ozonation upflow fluidized bed contactor—influence of particle diameter

An examination was undertaken of the properties of granular activated carbon (GAC) collected from a post-ozonation upflow fluidized GAC contactor at a full-scale advanced water purification facility operated by the Hanshin Water Supply Authority (HWSA), Japan. Activated carbon (AC) was collected from the upper, middle, and lower layer of the contactor and fractionated by a series of sieves. The amount of manganese, iron and calcium accumulated on each fraction was estimated by hydrochloric acid extraction test. The amount of iodine adsorption (I N ) was also measured. The amounts of metal accumulated were 1.2–89 (mg Mn g−1), 1.4–4.3 (mg Fe g−1), and 6.6–32 (mg Ca g−1). The amount was affected not only by the layer from which the carbon was collected but also by the average particle diameter of each fraction. I N was in the range of 119–527 (mg g−1) and decreased from the lower through the middle to the upper layer. Judging from I N , the AC collected from the upper layer, the furthest downstream, was subject to particular deterioration. A number of potential factors affecting the deterioration of GAC were suggested.